The Nordoff and Robbins Northern Music Awards have announced the winner of the inaugural Industry Icon Award as Michael Adex, the man who helped to launch Aitch’s career.
The news comes as the shortlist for Inspirational Venue of the Year is also announced – featuring some iconic venues from Manchester as well as other cities and towns in the north of England – and as nominations for the Festival of the Year remain open.
Michael Adex, founder and CEO of Manchester-based talent management company NQ, is the first-ever winner in the Nordoff and Robbins Northern Music Awards, launched this year to champion the breadth of musical talent across the north of England.
The inaugural awards ceremony, supported by Ticketmaster, will take place right here in Manchester on 30 November, at Aviva Studios (formerly known as Factory International), before moving to a different northern city each year.
Melanie C has been announced to perform and to receive a Special Recognition award.
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The awards will raise money to help fund the opening of a new Nordoff and Robbins dedicated music therapy centre in Salford.
Awards categories range from Newcomer of the Year to Artist of the Year, Band of the Year, DJ of the Year, Maverick in Music, and Festival Of the Year (you can still nominate your favourite with The Manc here).
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Michael has been recognised for his tireless work to showcase emerging musical talent from the north, including, of course, Moston-born BRIT-award winning rapper Aitch.
NQ’s management, label, and publishing arms have surpassed three billion streams and eight platinum certifications since Michael founded the company from his bedroom in 2017.
He went on to create NQ Legacy, a not-for-profit helping young creatives from The North to explore careers in music and the creative arts sectors.
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Northern Music Award Industry Icon 2023 winner, Michael Adex, said: “It is a great feeling to be recognised by the Northern Music Awards as their first Industry Icon. There is so much amazing, diverse talent in the North and I’m proud that NQ is playing a part in letting the world know about it.
Michael Adex has received the inaugural Industry Icon award in the Northern Music Awards. Credit: SuppliedAitch. Credit: Publicity picture
“The North massively deserves to have its own awards show to highlight the rich heritage and wealth of musical creativity that comes from here. Nordoff and Robbins has created a long-term legacy with the Northern Music Awards to bring more music therapy to isolated communities, this is inspirational, and I am excited for their new centre to open in Salford.”
Nadra Shah, director of engagement and communications, Nordoff and Robbins said: “We are thrilled to honour Michael Adex for his enormous contribution to the success of so much thriving musical talent emerging from the North. Fundamental to the success of Michael’s artists – including the multi-award-winning Aitch – is their ability to connect with their audience.
“Our aim is to support and help to grow the eco system of Northern musicians whilst shining a light on the transformative work we do with music therapy, to connect with some of the region’s most isolated communities. We are immensely proud of the work we do in the North, next year we will be celebrating 20 years since we started delivering music therapy in Manchester.”
Also announced today is the shortlist for Inspirational Venue of the Year, across two different venue capacity categories, sponsored by Skiddle.
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Those nominated in Manchester include YES, Night & Day Cafe, and Band on the Wall.
Inspirational Venue of the Year (under 500)
Brundenell Social Club – Leeds
Future Yard – Birkenhead
Night and Day – Manchester
Trades – Hebden Bridge
Yes – Manchester
Inspirational Venue of the Year (Under 2,000)
Albert Hall – Manchester
Band on the Wall – Manchester
Barbican – York
City Hall – Newcastle
New Century Hall – Manchester
Jamie Scahill, head of marketing at Skiddle, said: “Skiddle is incredibly proud to be supporting the inaugural Northern Music Awards and sponsoring the Inspirational Venue of the Year award. The grassroots venues of the North deserve to be recognised as they underpin the Northern music scene and culture.
“Skiddle was conceived in an independent venue in Preston 22 years ago and we have been supporting them ever since. We are grateful that Nordoff and Robbins are coming up North and we look forward to working with them for years to come.”
Nordoff and Robbins will be sharing half of the proceeds from Skiddle’s sponsorship of these award categories with registered charity Music Venue Trust.
Beverley Whitrick, chief operating officer, Music Venue Trust said: “Music Venue Trust is delighted to see Nordoff and Robbins celebrate the vibrancy of the music scene in Northern England with these new awards. The inclusion of the Inspirational Venue category, which acknowledges the importance of grassroots music venues to artists and audiences, is wonderful to see and MVT is thrilled to have been invited to be part of this by Nordoff and Robbins.”
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The NMA judging panel has also selected 19 events for the Favourite Festival of the Year award shortlist, including Liverpool’s Sound City, Cheshire’s Blue Dot, Yorkshire’s Deer Shed, Stockport’s Moovin and Lancaster’s Highest Point, with the 20th to be decided by audiences from The Manc, The Hoot and The Sheff.
Premium tables for the awards themselves will be available to book in advance – to register your interest, please contact the Nordoff and Robbins team here.
Featured image: Supplied
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The Last Dinner Party aren’t ‘industry plants’, they just got real good real quick – Victoria Warehouse, Manchester
Danny Jones
It feels very easy in the modern age to furrow your brow at any artist that gets really popular really quick, especially if it isn’t necessarily the kind of music you typically listen to, but after seeing The Last Dinner Party live we can confirm they’ve earned every bit of their success.
They’re not an industry plant, they’re just dead good.
Now, we accept that isn’t exactly top-tier analysis or music journalism from the off, but we’re hoping that this review of their recent Manchester gig at Victoria Warehouse and our sincere recommendation that you go and see The Last Dinner Party live for yourself will be all the vouching you need.
We were sadly too late into the gig to catch the first warm-up act, Lucia and the Best Boys, but we did arrive in time to hear the applause as they left the stage and have been to enough concerts to know when a support act has genuinely surprised and/or impressed uninitiated listeners.
Having gone away and listened to them in our own time, we can see why they were chosen by the TLDP. There’s a familiar level of melodrama and that almost Victorian aesthetic to frontwoman Lucia Fairfull’s presence, style and floaty vocals, even if the whole band’s vibe isn’t exactly the same.
The Scottish outfit is arguably the more outright indie of the two, but when you combine them with the second support act and even more ethereal-sounding Kateo – who really did impress us not only with her performance and stage presence but her sheer range too – that alternative feeling comes through.
Between the two of them, it felt like the pair had been hand-picked by the headliners as genuine fans to cultivate a concert that also feels cohesive from start to finish, championing talented and aspiring artists who are trying to carve their own space not just within similar spaces but between genres.
This may not seem so uncommon but given how big the BRIT Award-winners have already gotten over the last year or so, they could have chosen more established or even regional acts for individual UK dates to win over audiences – but they didn’t. Make that anti-industry plant theory example number one.
And then we come to the matter of the 2024 Rising Stars themselves, who are clearly thriving and on top of the world but putting real effort into their live set beyond just playing the songs well.
For instance, we didn’t quite realise just how many impressive singers there are in The Last Dinner Party until we saw them take to that iconic Manchester stage and get truly rapturous applause as multiple band members took the spotlight for their own individual heroine moments.
Be it Lizzie’s cover of‘Up North’ by fellow Halifax native Catherine Howe, Aurora’s haunting Albanian ballad or even just Emily’s genuinely shredding guitar solos, it was a reminder of just how versatile and multi-talented each of these lot are.
Don’t get us wrong, lead singer Abigail has all the charisma and style to knit them together in such a way that has no doubt helped make them such an instant hit, but they were full of surprises too.
The pseudo-medieval fantasy set, the orchestral entrance that is ‘Prelude to Ecstasy; the lighting, use of the stage and genuine rock-show moments (yes, they can thrash when they want to) – it was in seeing them in the flesh that we realised why so many have fallen in love with their music so hard and so fast.
The Last Dinner Party were buzzing to be back in Manchester (Credit: The Manc Group)
Last but not least, following a week in which the five-piece have come under criticism not only for cancelling gigs last minute but due to men even being asked to leave the shows after they were quizzed on why they were there and how long they’d be following the band, it was refreshing to see that the climate of their crowd was nothing like it has been made out to be in some reports.
Moreover, as a single male attending the gig, I can confirm we experienced nothing of the sort from security at Victoria Warehouse, and the room was as welcoming and carefree as you could hope for – not to mention all the tour tickets purchased have helped raise over £14k for food banks.
Perhaps there is an element of latent, underlying or covert sexism behind why some people have decided to take issue with the band whose members have various roots in good Catholic schools and have been accused of being ‘nepo babies’, but the plain truth is they’re just bloody good at what they do.
Creating a conspiracy around why a group of young women have become successful isn’t edgy, incisive or even an interesting theory – it’s embarrassing. Move on and just enjoy the music.
‘Sinner’, ‘My Lady of Mercy’, ‘Nothing Matters’ and a few clever covers were the highlights. (Credit: The Manc Group)
The Wombats are set to return with a new album, a UK tour and an unreal pair of North West support acts
Danny Jones
British indie legend The Wombats are back with a new album and a limited UK tour – plus, they’re bringing two very good Northern bands along with them as the support acts.
Announcing their sixth studio album on Friday, 11 October, The Wombats are set to return with new music after two years since their first UK number one and will be hitting the road for a select few dates including London, Manchester and Leeds, but this tour looks to be all about the North.
Well, strictly our very specific part of the region, to be more precise – a.k.a. the best place for music on the entire planet. Yeah, you heard us…
We’re not ready for how good the lineup is going to be and neither are you.
As you can see, the all-North Western affair will see the veterans of the genre flanked by Manchester’s very own alternative four-piece, Everything Everything, who we’ve now seen so many times that we’re genuinely starting to lose count.
They’ve not dipped in all those years either – not even a little bit.
But to make things even better, the support roster is completed by none other than fellow Scousers and much-loved indie icons: the ever-rising Red Rum Club, who will be making their AO Arena debut after smashing their hometown arena earlier this year.
You can’t really call them warm-up acts when they’re all this good, can you?
Set to play here in Manchester on Saturday, 22 March, 2025 before wrapping up the small handful of gigs at the First Direct in Leeds a few days later, these are what we’d consider must-not-miss shows.
Tickets for the tour go on sale at 10am on Saturday, 19 October but you can access pre-sale by pre-ordering their latest record.
Speaking of the new album, Oh! The Ocean is the band’s sixth studio LP to date and is set to release on 21 February March, with the lead single ‘Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come’ having just dropped.
Discussing a family trip that inspired the new album, frontman Matthew ‘Murph’ Murphy says: “I’ve been to many beaches and seas and coasts over the years but, for some reason, it felt like the first time I had ever seen it and was truly present.
“There was this revelation that I had been living a life caught up in my own head […] It was really a potent experience. […] The album offers up some internal questions like: why are my head and body disconnected all the time? Why am I incapable at times of seeing any form of beauty in the world or in others? Why do I expect the world to conform to my will? Why do I never stop and smell the flowers?”
The single itself is a great taster of what’s to come and we can’t wait to hear the rest – nor can we wait to see The Wombats and two other North West favourites all in one night.
You can check out our chat with Everything Everything HERE or the Red Rum Club boys down below.
Daisy Jackson -
10th August 2023 
